Convention Bureau Oks Reilly

After a month of behind-the-scenes jawboning and arm-twisting, the 130-member board of the Chicago Convention & Tourism Bureau agreed to split its top job and hire its landlord's chief executive.

In the end, no one questioned hiring Jim Reilly to fill the new chief executive officer position with the convention bureau, which rents office space from the Metropolitan Pier & Exposition Authority, or McPier, and markets the city's convention facilities to the world.

Under the plan, Reilly will be in charge of political liaison between the bureau and the state and city governments. He also will work to raise the political profile of the bureau in the state. Paul Astleford, who was named the bureau's president and CEO in 1994 after a year-long search, will retain the title of president and be in charge of sales operations. But Astleford will report to Reilly.

For Reilly, the new job virtually severs his ties with downstate Jacksonville, which he represented when he was elected to the Illinois General Assembly in the late 1970s.

Reilly was named deputy governor when he joined the administration of then-Gov. James R. Thompson in 1984. Since 1989, he has been McPier's chief executive and has ramrodded the expansion of McCormick Place, the renovation of the former East Building into Lakeside Center and the opening of Navy Pier as a tourist and convention site.

Thompson said Tuesday that Reilly brings special strengths to his new job with the convention bureau.

"He's always been widely respected in state government and I assume city government as well," said Thompson, noting that Reilly was named to head McPier "as a result of an agreement with Mayor (Richard M.) Daley and myself." Additionally, Reilly knows Gov.-elect George Ryan "from his days in the House when Ryan was the Republican leader."

Steve Brown, spokesman for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan (D-Chicago), said that Reilly doesn't bring any political baggage to the job.

"I don't know of anyone who harbors any ill will toward Jim Reilly," said Brown.

But Reilly was the leader of the unsuccessful effort last year to have the state legislature oust two unions from McCormick Place. Under the ill-fated plan, McCormick Place would have directly handled hiring of the tradesmen for setting up shows under new labor contracts.

The plan, which Reilly backed because it promised to reduce costs for exhibitors, was defeated in the Illinois Senate when leaders of the tiny riggers and decorators unions convinced Republicans not to support the plan.

Similar cost savings, however, were negotiated in September when Daley convinced leaders of the carpenters, teamsters,

riggers and decorators unions to accept rule changes cutting overtime costs while allowing more exhibitors to set up their own displays.

On Tuesday, even the four unions that Reilly attempted to unseat last year voted to hire Reilly as the convention bureau's new CEO.